AT&T Samsung Blackjack II Updated to Windows Mobile 6.1

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://ars.samsung.com/customer/usa/jsp/faqs/faqs_view.jsp?SITE_ID=22&PG_ID=557&PROD_SUB_ID=558&PROD_ID=957&AT_ID=132707' target='_blank'>http://ars.samsung.com/customer/usa...57&AT_ID=132707</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"This has to wrap up the lunacy that has seen Windows Mobile 6.1 updates for just about everything that needed one in recent times. We've seen 6.1 hacked for Sammy's BlackJack, but it's sorta sweet of them to get it out to us all official-like. The release notes on Samsung's site mention threaded SMS, Domain enrollment, and even a BMW iDrive patch as tout-worthy features, in this, the newest and best from Microsoft. As a word of caution, following the instructions to the letter is always a good plan during ROM updates, as failure to do so can lead to a very dead handset. Thanks Samsung, we appreciate the speedy software updates. Read link has the goods."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1220507788.usr8.jpg" /></p><p>As all of you have probably already heard, Windows Mobile 6.1 has been released for the Samsung Blackjack II. We would have reported on it earlier but when news first broke the update was pulled offline for whatever reason and after almost two days of regular refreshing of my browser hoping the update has come back... I eventually got distracted and forgot all about it. Sorry guys!<br /><br />Before performing this update do not forget to back up all of your data! This update will completely restore your phone to its default factory settings! You can download the update from one of the two links below:<br /></p><ul><li>Download for <a href="http://ars.samsung.com/customer/usa/jsp/faqs/faqs_view.jsp?SITE_ID=22&amp;PG_ID=557&amp;PROD_SUB_ID=558&amp;PROD_ID=957&amp;AT_ID=132706" target="_blank">Windows XP</a></li><li>Download for <a href="http://ars.samsung.com/customer/usa/jsp/faqs/faqs_view.jsp?SITE_ID=22&amp;PG_ID=557&amp;PROD_SUB_ID=558&amp;PROD_ID=957&amp;AT_ID=132707" target="_blank">Windows Vista</a></li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p>

[cortez]

although samsung says it doesn't work with a Vista 64 bit machine, it worked with my laptop. one little quirk was downloading the Samsung Modem file from the samsung site; unless something has changed since i last visited, there's no download for Vista. i downloaded the file anyway and installed it to my laptop. it took about 3-5 minutes, but it finally installed.

once the modem and other device drivers were installed, i just followed the instructions and the update took about 15 minutes. i successfully flashed 2 of the 4 BJII's in our family. (will get to the others later). so far, no issues...the phone is working like it was before the update. wifey and one of my kiddos really liked the threaded SMS feature and the windows panels on the home screen. wifey particularly liked the Calendar panel because (in her opinion) it's easier for her to scroll through her daily schedule. i also installed the old Nina font, which is larger than the standard Segoe font to make it easier for wifey's eyes.

we'll give it a couple of days to see how things work - if we encounter any issues, i'll post them in this thread.

[Dave Beauvais]

My update went perfectly, though I had to borrow someone else's 32-bit system to do it as all my systems now run 64-bit Vista. Interesting to know that it actually worked in 64-bit, though. You're a braver soul than I; I would have been too afraid of bricking my device, so I followed Samsung's directions carefully! :-)

Some comments:

I really like the new home screen, though I immediately changed away from the AT&T default one to get rid of the AT&T stuff. The ease of accessing important data quickly is very nice and is a huge improvement over other home screen themes I've used.
I think I like having the recently-used program list off the home screen and accessible via the first page of the Start menu. It makes up for the fact that AT&T puts their crud up at the top of the all programs list.
It remains to be seen whether the new IE is an improvement or just more of the same.
Threaded text messaging is nice.
It's nice that OneNote Mobile in now included in ROM with the rest of the mobile Office suite. It's less useful to me now than I used to be, though, since I only sync with a PC once or twice per month, so OneNote on my tablet rarely gets updated with what's on my BlackJack II.
Compared with the 2-5 minutes that it previously took to obtain a GPS position fix, the 15-30 seconds with the new ROM is a massive improvement to the usability of the device! It even gets a fix while traveling at highway speed. I'm very happy with this improvement!
While the game demos are nice, they are basically worthless. The bowling game gives you three frames, the pool game gives you two minutes of play, Mc. PacMan gives you a minute of play, and the Brain game is equally limited. Nice that they wasted ROM space on that stuff. The other software demos are also more or less a waste of ROM space, in my opinion.

[Jason Dunn]

Hmm...I wonder if I can slap this onto my Rogers JACK? I really want WM 6.1, and there's still no WM 6.1 release from Rogers...

[hotdram]

Has anyone with Sprite Backup 6.2 successfully ROM'ed their BJII and then used Sprite to restore their apps/files? Will it (Sprite) work properly when going from one WM version to another?

When I upgraded a BJ to the ROM update they have for that (the one that included Office Mobile), Sprite s/w wasn't very helpful because I was going to a new WM version.
Going from a BJ to the BJII, I had the same situtation, the Sprite s/w was basically useless.
Did I just pick the wrong options when I tried to restore? Don't remember what the options are, but I will find out tonight.

Thanks,
~Rob

[Dave Beauvais]

From what I read on another site, the installer checks some device ID and won't install on non-AT&T devices. But even if it would, there are a lot of AT&T-specific settings embedded. Everything from proxy servers to hardware button assignments. The proxy server you can get around easily by setting IE or other apps to use "The Internet" instead of "WAP Network." I don't know enough about how all this stuff works to know whether any of the AT&T tweaks actually matter in terms of device functionality.

It stinks that Windows Mobile updates are still handled the way they are, but I would just wait and hope that Rogers comes through with a 6.1 upgrade soon. Maybe in WM7 we'll have a Windows Update that actually works and OS upgrades can be installed without as much intervention on the part of the carriers.

Hey, a guy can dream! :rolleyes:

[hotdram]

Upgraded to 6.1 but I can not connect to the internet now :(
ATT is my service provider.

I am on an online chat with a tech from the ATT forums and here is there response:

"It looks as though Customers Texas to the East Coast are experiencing a Data Outage/Latency issues."

Kinda funny though, my wife's Motoral RZR2 V9 is getting data just fine and it is sitting about 3 feet from my phone :)


~Rob

[hotdram]

My issues were of my own making. (No internet and most apps wouldn't install).
After upgrading to 6.1, I performed a restore using Sprite Backup from a self extracting file I created on my storage card right before I started the upgrade. Apparently this hosed things up bad.
I did a reset of the phone after the restore, which put the phone back to base 6.1 configuration. I was immediately able to connect to the internet and all my apps installed without an issue.

~Rob

[heov]

this doesnt' have anything to do w/ 6.1, but when i used spb backup to restore a backup (same os... i just did a hard reset), it messed w/ internet settings. It left the password area blank.

Maybe the above poster did something similar.

[cortez]

My issues were of my own making. (No internet and most apps wouldn't install).
After upgrading to 6.1, I performed a restore using Sprite Backup from a self extracting file I created on my storage card right before I started the upgrade. Apparently this hosed things up bad.
I did a reset of the phone after the restore, which put the phone back to base 6.1 configuration. I was immediately able to connect to the internet and all my apps installed without an issue.

~Rob
you did the right thing here... we (as users) never know what registry changes were made with any ROM change. i discovered this the same way you did about 3 years ago. from that point forward, i've always reinstalled applications from scratch after a ROM upgrade. it's a time consuming process to reinstall all of your apps, but i think this is the best approach.

[Rocco Augusto]

Upgrading shouldn't be a problem like it is. Microsoft and the carriers should be aware by now that updating causes the device to hard reset and for the average consumer it would be a lot nicer if they didn't have to mess with their contacts or settings or applications. There should already be software in place to back those up for you. :mad:

[Dave Beauvais]

This could turn into a major rant, so I'll just keep it short since it's off-topic. It's absolutely absurd what users are expected to go through to update their Windows Mobile devices. For me, the steps required to update the BlackJack II were easy to follow, but the average consumer or end-user is going to look at that and go :eek:. Modem drivers? Why do I need modem drivers? And do I switch the phone's USB mode back to ActiveSync from Modem? You shouldn't have to worry about turning your device into an inoperable paperweight that has to be sent back to Samsung for service.

At a job I recently left, we had a user who bought a BlackJack II so he could sync with our Exchange server, keep up on his e-mail and appointments while traveling, etc. He's a smart guy, but is not the most technologically savvy person. I don't expect him to take on an update like this. If he still has the phone a year from now, I fully expect it to still have Windows Mobile 6, not the new 6.1.

And what are enterprises supposed to do if they have tens or hundreds of devices? The current method of updating them requires a significant investment of time in each device individually. Again, absurd.

I watched with some amount of envy as a friend of mine updated her iPhone with the latest software update. Totally painless, no loss of data, no software reinstallation, no hassle. The way it should be.

Hmmm... okay, that wasn't so short. :-)

[Jason Dunn]

It's absolutely absurd what users are expected to go through to update their Windows Mobile devices.

100% agree. This is my own personal jihad. Every chance I get, I bring this issue up and point out how completely and horribly broken it is. I don't know that anyone at Microsoft gets it, at least not enough for them to get into the faces of their carrier partners and re-claim their heritage of owning the operating system. It's all so incredibly frustrating.

[LeonardR]

The upgrade went fine and in the end it’s worth it for the improvements. The most noticeable is that GPS that works instantly with Live Search as opposed to a previous 5 minute plus wait.

After the upgrade I tried restores using Sprite 6.2.0.2260. At each upgrade level I got warning notices about files that couldn’t be found on start up. I reformatted the BJII, with the new OS 6.1, and just re-installed my programs and settings from scratch. I still kept Sprite as I found it great on the two occasions my BJII had to be rebuilt albeit without it being an upgrade.

[LeonardR]

I am having a problem with 6.1 in that the GPRS settings for AT&T are locked with a lock icon next to them even though my phone is unlocked. I can add a GPRS setting for the SIMS I use when roaming in the UK or Hong Kong. The problem is that I have found that in order to use the new GPRS Internet setting I need to temporarily change the AT&T setting away from Internet. I can not do that with 6.1. Anyone know how to unlock those settings?

[RobHalligan]

I've been going through all the steps to upgrade and the below (or at the link) screen won't take the check mark required to make the Next button stop being greyed out. I'm stuck. Any ideas?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robhalligan/2833674370/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robhalligan/2833674370/ (http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/<a href=)" title="BJII ROM Update Screen by RobHalligan, on Flickr">http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/<a href=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3253/2833674370_5d5d9d1e19.jpg" width="500" height="499" alt="BJII ROM Update Screen" />

[cortez]

I am having a problem with 6.1 in that the GPRS settings for AT&T are locked with a lock icon next to them even though my phone is unlocked. I can add a GPRS setting for the SIMS I use when roaming in the UK or Hong Kong. The problem is that I have found that in order to use the new GPRS Internet setting I need to temporarily change the AT&T setting away from Internet. I can not do that with 6.1. Anyone know how to unlock those settings?

you can add new settings and select them when you need to use them or you can check out this site (http://www.mobilejaw.com/articles/2008/06/new-network-settings-lock-on-windows-mobile-61-devices/) for details on unocking the settings for modification. hope this works for ya!

[nycsmartphone]

I upgraded successfully to 6.1 and like it on my BlackJack II.

I can no longer send email from my POP email account. I set it up again after the 6.1 install and receive email fine. I have checked rechecked, changed settings tried changing the outgoing server to an ATT server cwmx.com as suggested in an ATT forum without success.

I am using Yahoo! Business email and have had this account for many many years and have set up the account to use POP email many times on phones and in Outlook without problems (except the occasional typo which can be frustrating until you find it). I have retyped, retyped and there are no typos or bad settings this time.

Any suggestions? I really dread calling ATT tech support.

If everyone knew about this upgrade's availability for the BJII already then I am out of the loop, I only found out about it from this post, many thanks.

[nycsmartphone]

I deleted the POP account from the phone and started over and it now it works fine!?

As much as I checked and rechecked there must have been an error somewhere. I'm sure someone else snuck into my apartment, found the phone and changed a setting just to get me.

[Dave Beauvais]

[...] I'm sure someone else snuck into my apartment, found the phone and changed a setting just to get me.I really hate when people do that. ;)

[MadSci]

I had no problems with the WM6.1 update. The procedure was clear and nearly flawless (Samsung forgot to tell you to disconnect your phone after/before the last Reset):)

But REALLY!, Who among the Great Unwashed would ever tackle a thing like this?:confused:

While I must compliment Samsung again for a clear, step by step set of instructions, the whole thing is ridiculously complicated. Why can't this be an automated process! It's not Rocket Science to install drivers, reset devices etc. People shouldn't have to navigate thru these waters and risk Bricking their phone if they make a mis-step.

Need to update the OS on your iPhone, just point it to the correct address, press "OK" and wait.

W Mobile is headed for the bone yard my friends. Frankly, as soon as the iPhone people get their heads out of their body cavities and realize that lots of people sync their phones locally to PC's there will be no reason to hang around with WM and suffer thru this sort of nonsense! :mad:

Meanwhile, I'm off to take my life in my hands(et) yet again and update my Wife's Samsung SGH-i760. Will it lead to conjugal bliss, or a messy divorce? WIth Windows Mobile, you never know :p

MadSci